The 18th Asian Association of Open Universities Annual Conference
Quality Education for all – New Missions and Challenges facing Open
Universities
Shanghai, 28-30 November 2004
Mobile Learning – the Next Generation of Learning
Desmond Keegan
Distance Education InternationalDublin, Ireland
CONTENTS
Introduction
Theme
The future is wireless
Background to mobile learning
Definition of mobile learning
Five examples
Tactics
Conclusions
The future is wireless
Ericsson and Nokia tell us that there are 1.500.000.000 mobile phones in the world today. The world’s population is 6 billion.
The number of mobile subscribers in China alone is 200.000.000. This number is increasing at a rate of 2.000.000 per month.
More that 525.000.000 web-enabled phones were shipped in
2003. Worldwide mobile/wireless commerce in 2004 will reach
$200.000.000. There will be more than 1.000.000.000 wireless internet subscribers
by 2005.
Definition of mobile learning
Figure: Relationship of m-learning to e-learning
Five major projects
1. The From e-learning to m-learning project led by Ericsson, Ireland
2. The Mobile learning: the next generation of learning project led
by Ericsson, Ireland 3. The M-learning project led by the United Kingdom LSDA
(Learning and Skills Development Agency) 4. The MOBILearn project led by Giunti Ricerca of Genoa, Italy
5. The M-learning in rural Africa project of the University of Pretoria, South Africa.
Use of mobile telephony
In addition to this availability is the fact that mobile phones are technologies that citizens carry everywhere with them. They are regarded as personal technologies:
They are trusted They are in frequent use They are easy to use They are cheap They are in fashion The statistics for SMS messaging are counted in
the billions throughout the world.
From e-learning to m-learning
• Title: From e-learning to m-learning• Leader: Ericsson Education Dublin• Funding: €400.000
• Focus: The project starts from the acknowledgment that e-learning is the state of the art for distance education today, but asks what is the next dimension. It sets out to produce a series of
courses for PDAs, smartphones and mobile phones.• Website: http://learning.ericsson.net/mlearning
Mobile learning: the next generation of learning
Title: Mobile learning: the next generation of learningLeader: Ericsson Education DublinFunding: €400.000Focus: This project builds on the previous one. It moves the focus
from 2G technologies to 2.5G technologies using the Sony Ericsson T610 (mobile phone) and P900 (smartphone) as the basic devices. More sophisticated technologies like colour screens, moving graphics, SMS, MMS, and streaming video are used in course development in addition to the technologies used in the previous project.
Website: http://learning.ericsson.net/mlearning2 /
The m-Learning Project
Title: m-Learning projectLeader: UK government LSDA (Learning and Skills
Development Agency)Funding: €4.000.000Focus: The focus of this project is on unemployed and uneducable
16-22 year old British youths, all of whom need training but all of whom refuse to attend colleges or training centres. All have mobile phones.
Website: www.m-learning.org
The MOBILearn Project
Title: MOBIlearn
Leader: Giunti Ricerca, Genoa, Italy
Funding: €6.000.000
Focus: The project provides structures for mobile learning and courseware for students on MBAs, for medical updates and for museum visitors.
Website: www.mobilearn.org
M-Learning in Rural Africa
Title: m-Learning in Rural AfricaLeader: University of PretoriaFunding: nilFocus: What is important about this programme is that it is a regular
provision of post-graduate education, and not a project. The trouble about projects is that they tend to stop once the funding has run out. The target was rural students in the B Ed (Hons), Advanced Certificate in Education and Special Needs Education courses. 99% had mobile phones; none had e-mail or e-learning possibilities.
Website: http://www.up.ac.za
Profile of University of Pretoria students
The profile of these students: Majority live in rural areas 100% are full-time employees (teaching) 77.4% are English second language speakers 83.8% are between the age of 31 – 50 66.4% are women 13.9% are younger than 31 97.3% are non-white 0.4% have access to e-mail 99.4% have a mobile phone
Example of use of mobile learning
Purpose:Students do not visit their rural post offices very often and this leads to many returned packages. If students
know about a dispatch, they make an effort to fetch packages timely.
Success:Significant drop in returned packages and accompanying cost
Dear student. Your study matierial was posted to you today. Enquire in the time, quote your trackingNumber: PE123456789ZA, at your post office.
University of Pretoria
Example of use of mobile learning
Purpose:Extension of assignment submission date due to a late dispatch of study materialEncouragement to complete the assignment Success:Normal assignment submission statistics
Dear student. If you have not submitted Assignment 2, due to late dispatch of studyMaterial, you may submit before 19 Sept. Do this urgently to help you pass your exam.
University of Pretoria
Mobile learning tactics for AAOU
Tactic 1. Mobile learning on PDAs. Tactic 2. Mobile learning on smartphones
Tactic 3. Mobile learning already developed for smartphones
Tactic 4. Using the audio, video, streaming media, photography, SMS, MMS, internet facilities of
smartphones
Tactic 5. Using mobile phones in mobile learning
Tactic 6. Choice of course materials for smartphones and mobile phones
Tactic 7. The arrival of 3G technologies
Mobile learning courses available
The range of mobile learning courseware available as models for new users is getting extensive and includes at least the following:
1. Using PDAs in clinical assessment sessions of medical students (limited use of course content + assessment activities)
2. Using PDAs in postgraduate engineering courses (limited use of course content + communication)
3. Using Bulk SMS for general library support (administrative)
4. Developing an "SMS Gateway" as part of an LMS and student online
services (administrative and communication)
5. Using Bulk SMS for student support in three paper-based distance learning programmes [majority of students are situated in rural areas in Southern Africa]
Mobile learning courses available
6. Statistics course from the German FernUniversität
7. Courses in literacy and numeracy for undereducated 16-22 year olds
8. Courses in art appreciation from the Budapest University in Hungary
9. Students on MBA courses who require summaries, examination preparations, additional information and focused studies
10. Students in the health care professions who require updates and specialised information
11. Visitors to museums and art galleries who will receive detailed information on exhibits on their mobile phones.
12.Courses in telecommunications from Ericsson in Dublin
13.Courses in business and marketing from a number of US corporations.
The coming of 3G
People will be able to manage better their time and personal work: on
a train, at airports, while waiting etc Applications that run today on a computer will be able to run on a
phone The Internet and the WWW will be accessible directly to citizens on
their phones A wide range of applications will run on phones rather than on
computers: electronic passport visas can be mailed directly to the phone, electronic payments can be made by phone not computer.
3G will provide video connections over the air, in real time, as opposed to the fragile connections of today
Citizens will be able to work from anywhere with their phonesThe data rates available from 3G will make large data transfers from phones practical
The coming of 3G (continued)
• 3G is for laptops and wireless LANs as well as telephony but is only available in hotspots today. For covering citizens in their homes with the data rates they need to support the services they want they must have 3G.
• 2G and 2.5G provides coverage not capacity. WiFi supplies capacity not coverage. 3G provides coverage and capacity.
• The humourous answer to the question of what will 3G bring to phones is Girls, Games, Gambling. In 3G the bandwidth for these and other applications is available to the phone so that the only limitation to applications is the imagination.
• It is important that learning and training do not miss out.
Conclusions
Conclusion 1. The importance of mobile learning Conclusion 2. The new missions and challenges facing the
Asian Open Universities today. Conclusion 3. The two markets for mobile learning. Conclusion 4. The omnipresence of mobile phones. Conclusion 5. The success of PDAs Conclusion 6. Mobile learning on smartphones and mobile
phones Conclusion 7. The future is wireless.